


Hang Your Hat On The Village Gates

by raendown



Series: Commission Work [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 18:21:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17431103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: The war is over and Tobirama has long passed the Hokage's hat to Kagami. After all they've gone through there are still some things they never talk about - but Kagami thinks it's time they should.





	Hang Your Hat On The Village Gates

**Author's Note:**

  * For [godaime_obito](https://archiveofourown.org/users/godaime_obito/gifts).



> _Hang Your Hat - idiom - to live somewhere, to take up residence_

“Why did you choose me?”

Tobirama turned away from where he’d been using the fading afternoon sunlight to illuminate the document he was trying to read. Lowering the letter in his hands, grateful for the chance to stop squinting at terrible handwriting, he quirked an eyebrow at the man sitting behind the Hokage’s desk.

“Choose you for what?” he asked, mind still trapped in the endless paperwork they had been wading through for the past few hours.

“To succeed you,” Kagami answered softly. “Why did you choose me to be the third Hokage? This was always Hiruzen’s dream, you know.” His fingers vaguely indicated the room at large.

“Was it?”

“Mn. For a while there, just after I said yes, I thought he might never forgive me for it. He was never angry at you but I think he’ll always feel a bit like I took his dream away from him by accepting.” He shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal that one of his best friends could let jealousy stand between them in that way.

Tobirama stepped back from the window and settled his weight against the edge of the secondary desk that someone had dragged for him in to sit in the shadows across from the Hokage’s desk, contemplating his answer. “I never knew that. I thought you all knew that I had intended you to be my successor; I’ve been training you for the position since I took it myself.”

“Honestly? Wait…was that why you always made me help you with your paperwork?”

“Made you?” Tobirama scoffed and set the letter down. “If I recall correctly you used to volunteer.”

Kagami opened his mouth, closed it, then sank further down in his massive chair and turned his chin to huff in the opposite direction. “Don’t pretend you’re any better. You didn’t exactly stay in the seat long – I mean, you not exactly old – and here you are, still doing the paperwork. What was the point of giving me the hat if you were just going to keep coming in to work anyway?”

He was forced to wait again while Tobirama directed his gaze out the massive windows overlooking their village, brow furrowed, weighing each word that came to mind and wondering if now might finally be the time to give voice to things he had kept to himself for much too long. Eventually he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. When he opened them again Kagami was watching him curiously, the same warm light in his eyes that had always been there, the same fond tilt to his smile that had kept hope alive in his poor socially awkward heart.

“I never wanted this, you know,” he began. “This village was my brother’s dream and when the illness left him unable to watch over it he asked me to stand in his place. I gave almost my whole life to following after Hashirama’s shadow. Who was I to say no then?”

“You could have. He would have understood.”

“No. It was not in me to deny him. He put everything of himself in to this dream and the least I could do was put the best of myself in to it when he asked. So I took the hat. I did what I could to make life better for the people here, to ensure that the peace he had worked for would stay and the citizens might prosper, then I passed the job on to someone who I trusted, someone…” Tobirama paused, his expression shuttering in the way that meant he was struggling for the words to express himself.

Kagami stood from the chair that more often than not engulfed his smaller frame and made his way over to stand next to Tobirama, silent and patient. He was rewarded when the words began again, soft, heartfelt, things the man before him could only ever be with the few people he held closest to his heart.

“I never considered Hiruzen. A man will always be weak to his most important people but Hiruzen gives forgives too easily, gives leeway too quickly. I would not trust him to stand up against his advisors no matter that I would trust him to watch my back on the field. But you…you listen to advice, you consider that advice, and you pick the path that seems best. Once you have chosen what is right I have never seen you swayed from your course.” Tobirama turned to grace his companion with a rare gentle smile. “I gave you the hat because you embody all that I could not be for this village, all that I should have been for my brother. I admire you. I always have.”

“You admire _me_? You know that you’re…you, right?”

Amused, Tobirama was glad to break away from the serious direction his thoughts had taken. “Indeed, I do know that I am me. Is there something wrong with finding admirable qualities in another?”

“No. It’s just…I don’t know. Shut up.”

“If you don’t want me to talk then don’t ask me questions.” Now he was holding in laughter. Kagami huffed.

“Alright, answer me this one–”

“Possibly.”

“Let me get the stupid question out first!” Kagami narrowed his eyes at Tobirama until he lifted his brows innocently and held up both hands in mock surrender. “Good. So. Tell me this, then. If you were so eager to give up the job then why are you still here doing it?”

He was amazing to see Tobirama, of all people, duck his head with embarrassment. When he looked back up there was something distinctly bashful about the light in his eyes, a look Kagami was sure no one had ever seen on him before. It was much cuter than he was expecting. More surprising was the hand that reached across the short space between them, pausing just when he thought the older man meant to stroke his cheek, and then rerouted upwards to trace the edges of the Hokage’s hat atop his head.

“I know firsthand that quite often the only people a Hokage has time for are the assistants that work with him during the day.”

Kagami frowned, chewing that over carefully to make sure he hadn’t misinterpreted. “You gave up the job, put me under the hat, and then kept coming in to work anyway because…you wanted to spend time with me?”

“When the work day is done you have precious little time to yourself. I would not think to intrude upon the few moment you have to relax. You are, however, my dearest friend. Is it so surprising that I”–Tobirama paused to clear his throat uncomfortably–“missed your presence just a little?”

“Just a little?” Kagami parroted, hiding his flushed cheeks behind a teasing grin.

“Yes. Only a little.”

“Ah, come on, you can say a lot. I _am_ pretty awesome.”

Tobirama huffed once in a quiet laugh and held his gaze. “I would have to agree.”

Flustered as he was, Kagami almost looked away and missed it when Tobirama stood from where he had been leaning against the shadowed desk and turned so they were facing each other. His eyes widened comically when this time the man really did raise a hand and cup the side of his face, thumb stroking his cheek ever so gently.

It felt like it had been forever since they started this dance, coming so close to crossing certain lines only for one of them to shy away. Whether it was because of poor timing, interruptions, fear of the very thing they both so clearly wanted changing what they already had, it didn’t matter why. By now it had been years and yet Kagami couldn’t say he regretted a single moment. If they had continued on like this until they were both wrinkled and lowered in to their graves he still would not have regretted it. Whatever it was between them would keep him coming back forever even if all they did was brush hands sometimes and never speak of it directly.

Yet here was Tobirama breaking all the rules, sliding his hand around to play with the curls at the base of Kagami’s neck.

“What I should have said, I suppose, was that I chose you as my successor because I trusted you to do what is necessary. If I betrayed the village I trusted you to be the one to strike me down – reluctantly, of course, but you would do it to protect the people because it was necessary and right.”

“Oh for–” Kagami broke off chuckling. Had he really expected the man to say something romantic? “I guess you gave this job to the wrong man then.”

“Did I?”

“Yes. Anyone else and I could do that but you? Never. You could raze the whole world and I would find a way to follow.” He offered a smile, thrilled when the hand on his neck slid up to weave in to his hair and pull him closer.

Tobirama returned him smile and bent his head until they were but a breath apart. “Would you like to know why, exactly, I am about to kiss you?”

“I – please. _Yes_ ,” Kagami breathed. He shuddered as the fingers in his hair tightened, heart thundering in his chest and adrenaline pumping through his veins. It would have been nice to stay cool and suave now that it seemed the moment he had dreamed of a hundred times and more was finally here; instead he felt like he might vibrate out of his skin at any moment and yet he could hardly bring himself to breathe for fear of interrupting.

“Because I know you’re lying.”

Knowing that they would both strike the other down in the name of the village was definitely one of those things that could only be romantic between shinobi. But damn if Kagami couldn’t deny that it meant the world to him that he embodied the values Tobirama held in such high honor.

Thoughts of what should and shouldn’t be considered romantic were pushed from his mind a second later when Tobirama pulled him in and he instinctively rose up on his toes to meet the other in a first kiss that had been too long coming. Soft and unhurried, they took their time sinking in to it, Kagami slowly gliding his hands up the solid planes of Tobirama’s chest before winding them around the man’s shoulders and holding tightly, pressing their bodies together from shoulder to hip. His shiver rattled them both when the hand Tobirama slid over his hip squeezed gently.

Parting was a distasteful concept, so much so that they must have stood there doing nothing but trading slow, deep kisses for almost fifteen minutes – quite a long time to do nothing but kiss.  By the time they managed to pull themselves out of the moment Kagami found that he had been lifted on to the edge of the desk for that one extra inch of height, his legs wrapped around the other man’s with mild possessiveness.

“You looked better in the hat,” was all he could think to say. Tobirama’s startled laugh was an unexpected music.

“Did I?” With a smile bigger than most people would have seen him wearing, Tobirama swept the hat off of Kagami’s head and set it aside. “Well in that vein, I think you would look better across the table from me at dinner tomorrow.”

“Are you asking me out on a date?”

“I am.”

Kagami reminded himself that breathing was fun and necessary. “Tell me when and where and I promise to show up fifteen minutes early, worry that I’m late, and probably wear something backwards by accident because you make me _nervous_.” He hoped the playful grin hid how serious he was about all that.

From the spark of amusement still twinkling away in Tobirama’s eyes he guessed he hadn’t hid anything very well but that was okay. Tomorrow he had a date with the man he’d been loving quietly for years now. His lips still tingled a little from the most fantastic kiss he had ever experienced. And his heart was full to know that he had earned his place; in the village, in the Hokage’s seat, in Tobirama’s arms, he was exactly where he belonged.


End file.
